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The Americans in the Media

maraleia

By maraleia
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sistermagpie
sistermagpie

I actually did get all of that, I just didn't see why it would be that satisfying to me. I spent seasons 1-4 hoping that Mischa was a lie created to manipulate Philip, so I was totally disappointed wh

Plums
Plums

Couple of new articles this morning about the end of the series. A Vox piece that is very nice and doesn't give away any spoilers for the finale other than to say the reviewer saw and loved it. 

SlovakPrincess
SlovakPrincess

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/arts/television/richard-thomas-of-the-americans-on-agent-gaads-fate-john-boy-and-jimmy-carter.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&_r=1 "Do you

BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

Matthew says, in this new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, that the show isn't winning awards 'cause they're not sleeping with the right people (I laugh at Matthew here). He also "dishes" on Philip's alter ego, "Jim" & "Clark" & Martha's relationship (but what he says isn't necessarily fatally spoilery for enjoying the show the rest of the season).

http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/americans-matthew-rhys-spoilers-awards-774652

Also, he's telling his Twitter followers *not* to use "Enterprise Car Hire" (aka Enterprise Rent-A-Car to Americans):

“@MatthewRhys: Enterprise car hire are incredibly enterprising thieves. Blame shirking, fabricating, lying, phantom charging THIEVES. DON'T USE. #scum.”

https://twitter.com/matthewrhys/status/568079966400864256

Also... Alison Wright (Martha) talks about S3 with InStyle magazine. It's maybe getting a little old now, but it's still online (I think it's the February issue, as far as the stores/newsstands go):

http://news.instyle.com/2015/02/04/the-americans-star-alison-wright/

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

The always great AV Club review:  http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-dimebag-215464

 

Vulture:  Innocence Is Sexier Than You Think  http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/americans-recap-season-3-episode-4-sexy-babies.html

 

The Atlantic's take: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/02/the-americans-season-three-episode-four/385575/

 

NYT:  http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/the-americans-recap-paige-you-sly-dog/

 

I think I love reading the reviews of this show almost as much as I like the show. 

Edited by Umbelina
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

There's *no* information on DVD extras or a release date, but TVShowsonDVD.com says amazon.com is now taking orders for DVDs from this season (S3)--I think it only mentioned DVDs, no Blu-Rays.

There *is* a pic of the probable cover; it's the images of Matthew & Keri from the neck up, with their faces painted with a mixture of American & Soviet/Russian-related images on a white background (I think this was in some of the preseason promos as well); the images are on a black background.

Here's the link to TVShowsonDVD's page about it:

http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/20812

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-salang-pass-215777

That’s what’s so intriguing to me about the look Philip gives Kimberly when she wonders aloud about her father’s theoretical second family. Philip feels something here, but he can’t express it under the guise of James. He sees that Elizabeth was right to worry about Paige turning into Kimberly: Kept in the dark about her father’s (and maybe her step-mother’s?) real job, she’s come to resent Isaac. She misses the type of parent-child activities Philip and Stan yak about over beers; she misses the little rake and the big rake. Momentarily, the conscience that Gabriel warned about peeks over James’ wire-rimmed aviators and sees Philip’s own daughter, turning to religion to find the straight talk and omnipresent father she doesn’t have at home. This sudden recognition of his daughter in someone else’s feels relatable; the fact that Paige’s “rebellion” involves Christianity is what makes this The Americans. Either way, the emotion is deeply felt and deftly deployed.

 

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-the-americans-salang-pass-just-a-gigolo

"The Americans" is a show about marriage disguised as a show about spies, or vice versa. Sometimes, the balance tips heavily towards the relationship aspect, sometimes towards the espionage. Sometimes, though — as in a special, murky episode like "Salang Pass" — it not only manages to be about both, but about how the combination of the two elements makes both the marriage and the spy work wholly unique.

Early in the episode, Elizabeth comes home to find Philip listening to news radio, and their conversation jumps from Martha's desire to take in a foster kid, to memories of Henry and Paige when they were little, to talk of Philip's squirm-inducing recruitment of Kimberly. And all I could notice throughout the scene — and for any ensuing scene where Philip wasn't in disguise as Clark or Jim the lobbyist — was just how tired and pale Philip looked. This is all weighing heavily on him — in some ways, more than last season when he kept killing innocent bystanders — as he tries to juggle the conflicting needs of the many women in his life, including Mother Russia herself. He and Elizabeth are fighting a cold war in miniature over Paige's future, he seems to be warming to Martha's foster parent idea(*), and the entire war in Afghanistan seemingly (at least, to hear Gabriek tell it) hinges on him having sex with a 15-year-old girl who thinks she wants him to be her lover when what she needs a hell of a lot more is for him to be her father. He's not ending lives, but he's destroying them in ways that may feel worse than death to these new victims.

 

 

 

http://time.com/3723035/the-americans-sex-review-salang-pass/

If it weren’t already clear, The Americans is no shagadelic spy fantasy. In bed or out, there is always the awareness, as Gabriel says, that the person is secondary to the mission. When the mission is done with them, will any of the person be left?

 

http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/americans-recap-season-3-episode-5-salang.html

Meanwhile, Elizabeth (a.k.a. Michelle) meets up again with Lisa, the AA sponsor/Northrup employee who can't seem to leave her alcoholic husband. Elizabeth makes a very generous offer: Her mother has just moved into a nursing home, and she'd love to have Lisa stay in the house with her kids, to get back on her feet away from Maurice. "You can't live like this, Lisa. Let me help you out. I'd like to." It's a hugely attractive offer, because Lisa is in a very deep hole. People in very deep holes are very attractive to people like the Jennings; they look like an opening. You can walk right through them.

 

Kimberly tells a heartbreaking story about how she and her dad used to have a garden together, how they planted vegetables and would rake the lawn from either side until they met in the middle. Now her mom's dead, her brother and sister are out of the house, and thanks to her new stepmom who doesn't like things "messy," the garden is just a lawn. She is lonely and 15, and there is a hole in her heart almost bigger than her body; it would be so easy for Philip to walk through.

 

Edited by Umbelina
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BetyBee

BetyBee

(edited)

Bald Move's "Everybody Loves Reagan" podcast is (was) my favorite for this show.  They have decided to stop podcasting this show due to low ratings and apparent lack of downloads, but also (mostly?) due to dislike for the direction the storyline is taking.  Specifically, I believe, based on where the story went in Salang Pass.  I was surprised as they cover all kinds of shows, that they would specifically be squicked out at the idea of Phillip seducing a 15 year old and Elizabeth's latest killing of an innocent. 

Edited by BetyBee
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

I saw that BW Manilowe. She's still going to appear this season on The Americans - right? She's just terrific.

Yeah, as far as I know she'll still be on this season--but apparently just for an episode, not the remainder of the season. That was announced before her joining the cast of this Pilot was.

If this Pilot takes, & her part isn't recast with another actress or eliminated altogether, the series resulting from the Pilot would start in the fall of this year (September 2015, or later). So if The Americans gets to S4, Margo likely would still only be available for limited guest shots in S4 (depending on the shooting schedules of both shows & whatever can be worked out among the showrunners & whoever else needs to be involved in the decision), unless her other show tanks fast (faster than The Millers, anyway).

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Umbelina

Umbelina

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/03/the-americans-roundtable/386875/

Beyond the baptism, it really looks like the entire Jennings family threatens to fall apart at the seams. Both parents are now independently trying to corner Paige alone and bring her over to their side. First, Philip launched into a Seventh-Heaven style speech about how "you should never feel pressured to do anything you don't feel is right for you. No one knows what's better for you than you." Later, Paige saw Elizabeth smoking, and there was a rare moment of softness between mother and daughter. (Remember when they were at each others' throats just a few episodes ago?) "You've grown up so fast," Elizabeth said. Subtext: In fact, you're now grown-up enough to undertake secret, dangerous missions for our true homeland, the USSR.

 

 

 

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-born-again-2160901200.jpg

And then Nina rolls off her back to face Kevin Dowling’s camera, staring not into space but looking the viewer right in the eye. The composition of the shot recalls the symmetrical setup of the cold open at Paige’s church. “Pay attention,” Nina’s gaze tells us, and the stomach churning rumble on the soundtrack follows up. “Here comes dessert.”

 

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/whats-it-going-to-take-to-get-you-people-to-watch-the-americans/

What’s It Going to Take to Get You People to Watch ‘The Americans’?

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Umbelina

Umbelina

 

 

The intercutting of Philip with Kimmy and Elizabeth with Paige in the episode's closing minutes was particularly brutal, even though Philip ultimately finds a way to avoid (for now) having to have sex with his 15-year-old target. Both of them are reeling in these girls who have no business being associated with the spy world, and in a way likely to do terrible, lasting damage to each.

 

But really, there were moments throughout the hour that made me feel sick to my stomach, even as I admired the craft with which "The Americans" creative team was giving me nausea. Think, for instance, of Gabriel telling Philip about his illegitimate son being a soldier in Afghanistan(*). Whether true or not — and the genius is that the nature of Philip's deep cover identity is that it will be impossible for him to ever verify the story — it is exactly what he needs to hear in order to step things up on the Kimmy front, no matter how much it gives him the same feeling the episode gave me. Or look at the way Nina wolfs down the food given to her as reward for eliciting a confession from Evi: a woman reduced to an animal who will do anything to survive her dire circumstances.

 

(*) Watch Matthew Rhys in that scene, and the way his breathing slows to the point where you can chart every millimeter movement of his Adam's apple as he tries to process this information and what it means to him as a man, a father, and a spy who now has to double his efforts with the poor babysitter. The man is doing spectacular work.

 

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-the-americans-born-again-seduction-of-the-innocent#5HGdJF4Ej9irY7gV.99

 

http://www.vulture.com/2015/03/americans-recap-season-3-episode-6.html

Paige is a bit confused by this, just like she was confused by Philip's speech, because they are feeding her odd, disjointed fragments of their own agendas and expecting her to make sense of them. Does that mean that she's not doing enough, asks Paige? No, says Elizabeth. "I brought you here because I wanted you to know that I'm more like you than you think." It's so close to what Gabriel tells Philip about Misha, about the way parents want to grow closer to their children by projecting themselves on to them, by seeing them as similar.

 

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

A link to the Podcast for this ep is within this linked Tweet. It may, or may not, be the non-iTunes link posted in the Podcast thread.

https://twitter.com/theamericansfx/status/573577776906694656

Interview with Showrunners Joe & Joel, particularly about last night's ep. They say--among other things--if we're "uncomfortable" with the Kimmie/"Paul" storyline, then it's going the way they intended it to.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/the-americans-joe-weisberg-joel-fields-1201446540/

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scrb

scrb

Any word on renewal?

Seems like they could be setting up a cliffhanger for the end of S3 where they reveal to Paige or Philip and Elizabeth have their confrontation over her.

Of course the producers would have to be confident of renewal to line things up this way.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/03/12/the-americans-recap-season-3-episode-7-walter-taffet/

 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/the-americans-recap-never-break-the-chain/

 

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-the-americans-walter-taffet-never-break-the-chain

 

http://decider.com/2015/03/12/the-americans-recap-walter-taffet/

 

http://www.vulture.com/2015/03/americans-recap-season-3-episode-7.html

 

http://www.starpulse.com/news/Jay_Harvey/2015/03/12/the-americans-recap-martha-you-in-dang

 

http://observer.com/2015/03/the-americans-3x7-recap-fleetwood-mac-attack/

 

http://collider.com/the-americans-recap-season-3-episode-7/

 

http://www.ew.com/recap/americans-season-3-episode-7

 

http://previously.tv/the-americans/hey-baby-whats-wroooooong/

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-walter-taffet-216459

It’s been said before, and I have a feeling it’ll be said again after this, but poor Martha. She’s been placed in a real pickle here, and Alison Wright does such an excellent job conveying her character’s distress, all facial scrunches and nervous hands and absolute silence. Oh, the silence in that ladies’ room is excruciating, in all the right ways: We know Martha’s in trouble, but in the absence of dialogue, our minds get to race right along with hers. Who might suspect that she planted the bug? Can she tell Clark that the bug has been discovered? Is bugging a federal agent’s office, even under the instruction of another federal agent, a treasonous offense? (You know what they do to traitors, right?) And how does she even know that Clark is a federal agent?

This form of narrative suspense relies so much on audience sympathies, and even those of us who haven’t placed a recording device in the office of the director of FBI counterintelligence can relate to Martha’s motivation here: She did it out of love.

 

All of these are really, REALLY good.  Enjoy.  At least the bloggers, and reviewers are giving this show well deserved attention, now if only people would start WATCHING it!  The ratings are not only frustrating, they are worrisome.  I keep trying to get friends and family to watch, but I'm not having much luck either.  If they would just try it, they might get hooked. 

Edited by Umbelina
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

To go along with Umbelina's ep review link from Alan Sepinwall at Hitfix, there's also this link to an interview with Noah Emmerich, also by Alan Sepinwall, about being a first-time director with this week's ep:

http://m.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-americans-co-star-noah-emmerich-on-directing-his-first-episode/

And, to go along with the Entertainment Weekly (EW) ep review, here's an article explaining why people should be watching The Americans, if they're not already:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/03/11/curtis-sittenfeld-heres-why-you-should-be-watching-americans

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gwhh

gwhh

(edited)

Entertament Weekly magazine. March 20 2015 issue have a full page story about the show and why you should watch it.

bf0e56397702871.jpg

Edited by gwhh
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

Entertament Week magazine. March 20 2015 issue have a full page story about the show and why you should watch it.

bf0e56397702871.jpg

I actually linked to that story, on the magazine's website, 3 posts upthread from yours. And the magazine is actually Entertainment Weekly, not Entertainment Week.

Alison Wright (Martha) was on MSNBC's Morning Joe show early this morning. Hopefully there might be a clip or the full interview on MSNBC's website. If it's not there, hopefully it's somewhere else online.

Also... I don't know if this is a repeat or a new ep, but Keri Russell (Elizabeth) is supposed to be a guest on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers show tonight. The show airs (on NBC, like I said) at 12:35AM Eastern/11:35PM Central Time, after The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

If you're interested in watching/recording it, check local listings to be sure of the time & channel (or if it even airs) in your area. Late night programming, airing after the late local news, can be susceptible to time shifts so local stations can air syndicated stuff &/or paid programming instead.

Edited by BW Manilowe
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PinkRibbons

PinkRibbons

Matthew is apparently going to be on Archer this week. It's on FX this Thursday night at 10PM Eastern/9PM Central. Check local listings for the correct times in Mountain, Pacific, Alaskan & Hawaiian Time Zones. Here's the link to the Tweet from The Americans which mentions it:

https://twitter.com/theamericansfx/status/577572572319068160

 

I forgot this was coming up!!! The episode's set in Whales, I'm guessing he'll be using his regular accent. Judging from the podcasts he's already a hysterically funny man, I'm really looking forward to seeing him among the Archer cast.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

I forgot this was coming up!!! The episode's set in Whales, I'm guessing he'll be using his regular accent. Judging from the podcasts he's already a hysterically funny man, I'm really looking forward to seeing him among the Archer cast.

You mean it's set in Wales? There's no H in the country's name.

I'm mainly posting because I need to apologize for an error!

It apparently appears Keri Russell was on Late Night with Seth Meyers last night. A photo gallery Tweeted by People magazine earlier today showed a pic of Keri, in a T-shirt with the show's name, & a jacket over it, leaving her house--the caption said, to do the show, & the caption also said the show was taped last night/yesterday (Seth Meyers' new shows usually air the same day they're taped--except perhaps for shows airing on Fridays, which have been pre-taped earlier in the week; pretty much all the national talk shows have pre-taped their Friday shows, for some unknown reason, for a number of years now). I looked back at the timestamp on the Tweet which mentioned the appearance, & it was posted far back enough that the appearance probably was on last night after all.

Apologies for the error! You can probably find clips or the whole interview on the show's website at NBC.com, or elsewhere.

Edited by BW Manilowe
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

PinkRibbons: Thanks for posting the clip. I think the character looks amazingly like Matthew (they seem to have great animation artists on the show which, admittedly, I don't usually watch), but the voice was deeper than I remember his usual voice being. Probably because he identified himself by a character name & wasn't simply Matthew Rhys in the scene. So he didn't use his completely normal voice, like he uses in talk show interviews, etc.

Anyway... In return (sort of) I'm posting a link to the Late Night with Seth Meyers page on NBC.com, which got Retweeted to my Twitter feed yesterday (Wednesday) since I follow The Americans' show Twitter feed.

http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-seth-meyers/video/keri-russell-was-the-coolest-member-of-the-mickey-mouse-club/2853244?onid=147636#vc147636=1

It currently includes a 2 minute, 37 second clip (probably a clip & not the entire interview) from Keri Russell's interview earlier this week, which is in the big screen at the top of the page as I write this post.

*Plus*, the *entire* episode in which Keri appeared is--as I write this post anyway--2 sections (I think) below the big screen, among the available full episodes. So you can also see the entire interview, if you like, since the 2 minute thing at the top is probably just a clip from it.

Edited by BW Manilowe
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crgirl412

crgirl412

(edited)

FX mailing address and phone number:

 

FX

Box 900

Beverly Hills, CA 90213

310-369-1000

 

I'm going to write to them to ask/tell them to play The Americans more like Bravo plays their shows.  I can't believe that I'm actually telling FX to be more like Bravo but it's true, it's completely true!!!!!!   

 

If you are wondering why I say that, turn on Bravo for 5 minutes of their original programming (sans Inside the Actors Studio which is classy) and you'll understand. 

 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I watch way too much of Bravo's original programming so I'm not judging!!! 

Edited by crgirl412
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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)
Rather than treat violence, be it emotional or physical, with a glib wink or a childish shrug, The Americans forces its characters — and, by extension, its audience — to bear witness and suffer the consequences. A gunshot doesn’t solve problems, it creates them — as the blinkered Hans learned last night. And even a heartfelt connection rarely leads to a happy ending, as Elizabeth demonstrated. To accept these rough truths requires looking at the show with unpatriotic eyes. The bulk of American TV, like American mythology, is founded on a much easier conceit: Good vs. Evil. It’s a false binary that finds its way even into shows that aspire toward moral complexity.

 

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/crime-and-punishment-the-americans-soars-in-its-brutal-third-season/

 

Theory #2 (and this is the one I believe, because I’m a mistrustful sort): Martha has more nerve than we realize and confessed everything already to Gaad and the actual internal affairs investigator. Rather than just bust “Clark,” they’re going to keep him in the wild, study him, and pull a reversal—now Martha will be used to spy on him.

 

It echoes what the Rezidentura forced Nina to do when they found out she was aiding the FBI Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich)—keep helping him, but actually help us even more. Maybe it’s far-fetched, but hear me out: Let’s just entertain the idea that gullible Martha has been enlisted as a double-agent.

 

Isn’t it a little odd that the “Children’s Services” call came in just as “Clark” arrived at the apartment? And that it was dispatched so cleanly?

Maybe that was the FBI checking that everything was copacetic after “Clark” entered the apartment. If Martha hadn’t answered the phone, or felt endangered and uttered an alarm word, that apartment could have been flooded with agents.

Instead, she keeps her cool, goes about dinner, and supplies Philip with a handy little piece of actionable intelligence: the mail robot has been damaged and sent off-site for repairs.

This tidbit leads the KGB handler Gabriel (the smoothly intimidating Frank Langella) to conclude that the mail robot must be bugged so Mother Russia can get their ears back on the FBI counter-intelligence office.

Philip resists. Maybe it’s time to just let Martha go and count their blessings. But Gabriel isn’t willing to do that just yet. Bug the machine, he tells them. End of story.

Gabriel likes to present the image of a sophisticated, avuncular presence with his two top field agents, but Langella shows a little teeth by rejecting their fretting with one sternly delivered sentence: “You should trust the organization.”

 

If Theory #2 is taking place, and Martha is helping the FBI spy on this person who infiltrated her life, Gaad & Co. may have wanted Martha to dangle the bait of the disabled mail robot knowing the KGB wouldn’t be able to resist bugging it. Knowing that it may come back wired for sound gives them a perfect opportunity to whisper bad information into Mother Russia’s ear. If they know the bug is there, they can control what it hears.

 

http://www.ew.com/recap/the-americans-season-3-episode-9/3

 

Overall, though, the show is so emotionally rich that I can overlook a potential misstep or two. The Martha/Clark relationship alone is producing remarkable material week after week, here both with their oddly cordial dinner, and with Elizabeth's ongoing concern about, and jealousy of, Philip's other wife. When she tells Philip, "It's only natural that you developed feelings for Martha," she is trying to minimize those feelings, even though the context she is describing is exactly the reason why Philip fell in love with her.

 

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-the-americans-do-mail-robots-dream-of-electric-sheep-coal-miners-daughter#iLf4iGfRHhBYwtSg.99

 

But choice can break your heart, too. Without toppling over into saccharine territory, Elizabeth’s brief time with Betty accounts for some of The Americans’ most potent emotional material. It’s made all the more remarkable by the way those scenes play out, forming a one-woman show about the peaks and valleys of a life that’s about to end. Because this is The Americans, marriage accounts for most of what we hear from Betty: a husband overseas during World War II, a divorce and a reconciliation, a death that put the machine shop in their son’s hands and left Betty seeking moments of connection in the silence of wee-small-hours bookkeeping. It’s all so efficiently and effectively told, with a modicum of exposition and a shorthand that makes it feel like Elizabeth isn’t the first person to hear all of these stories. If Smith’s performances feels stagey at times, it’s only because she’s an award-winning veteran of the stage, doing TV work in a role and an environment of theatrical simplicity. The actress has to carry a huge portion of “Do Mail Robots Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, and she does so in haunting fashion.

 

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-do-mail-robots-dream-electric-sheep-217092

 

A dying woman is probably the closest that Elizabeth will ever get to a priest, so she confesses her secrets, too. How she has children, but how she and her husband do this together sometimes — they kill people. “Why?” asks the woman, shortly before she collapses. "To make the world a better place," says Elizabeth. Betty doesn't believe that could be true, and her last words offer no absolution: "That’s what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things.”

 

http://www.vulture.com/2015/03/the-americans-recap-season-3-episode-9.html

 

PODCAST  http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/03/26/the_detail_obsessed_designers_who_recreate_the_80s_for_the_americans.html

Edited by Umbelina
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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

I love this one!  http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/crime-and-punishment-the-americans-soars-in-its-brutal-third-season/

 

The people on The Americans aren’t good or bad. They’re just people, which means the morality needle is always spinning. This has led to a series rife with conflict but profoundly wary of resolution. Nearly every great American drama has given its audiences at least the occasional whiff of victory to keep them sweet: Tony Soprano would smile from time to time; McNulty and Bunk would blow out their sorrows on Jameson and beer. It’s a nod to the secret chemistry of all domestic TV: Give them a taste of the good stuff and soon they’ll be hungering for a full meal. The Americans, like a lugubrious Russian thinker, abjures this capitalist system of constant reward. There is no buoyancy to its storytelling, there is little long-term hope. (This is likely why the ratings remain so poor. But never fear: In January, FX boss John Landgraf promised “at least” five seasons, and recent conversations with the network have made it clear to me that he wasn’t lying, numbers be damned.) Call it a downer if you must. To me, it’s oddly liberating. Yes, it’s a show primarily about lying. But to watch The Americans is to be forced to sink deeper and deeper into uncomfortable truths. To borrow a phrase from Betty, the doomed widow in the machine repair shop, it’s impossible to watch this show with even a grain of sugar in your eyes.

 

There’s a wide expanse between the war you want to win and the battles you’re forced to fight. Gabriel was talking about love, but his words from last night ring true here as well: Life isn’t planning for bolts of lightning. It’s planting, tilling, and tending. Your fingernails get dirty. Occasionally, so does your soul. The Americans goes to the root of what it means to be human in any era, in any line of work, and tugs. What it unearths isn’t very pretty. But that’s exactly why it needs to be seen.

 

The blow to Elizabeth's ideological assurance thus arrives as she comes face to face with the fact that "the Americans" she's spent her entire life fighting are not, as individuals at least, so very different from herself. They're religious skeptics and anti-fascists, mothers and wives, workers from hardscrabble backgrounds; even the key distinction between capitalism and communism quickly fades away in the messy realm of the concrete. Smith, known for her supporting roles in East of Eden and Five Easy Pieces, is simply devastating here, lending Betty a kindly, calm bearing that makes Elizabeth's reckoning all the more potent. By the time Betty's lip quivers with the realization that she won't survive the night, her suggestion that Elizabeth's justification for murder is "what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things" seems almost superfluous. However fiercely Elizabeth believes in her cause, it's merely another set of rituals and symbols that the right person in the right circumstance can turn to evil ends.

 

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/the-americans-recap-season-3-episode-9-do-mail-robots-dream-of-electric-sheep

Edited by Umbelina
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SlackerInc

SlackerInc

At least the bloggers, and reviewers are giving this show well deserved attention, now if only people would start WATCHING it!  The ratings are not only frustrating, they are worrisome.  I keep trying to get friends and family to watch, but I'm not having much luck either.  If they would just try it, they might get hooked. 

 

On the SDMB, someone posted the following, which if accurate is far worse than I had realized:

 

The Americans Season 3 A18-49 Ratings and Total Viewers

Episode 1 - 0.63 A18-49 Rating and 1,895,000 Total Viewers

Episode 2 - 0.35 A18-49 Rating and 918,000 Total Viewers

Episode 3 - 0.29 A18-49 Rating and 1,018,000 Total Viewers

Episode 4 - 0.24 A18-49 Rating and 972,000 Total Viewers

Episode 5 - 0.19 A18-49 Rating and 811,000 Total Viewers

Episode 6 - 0.24 A18-49 Rating and 931,000 Total Viewers

Episode 7 - 0.35 A18-49 Rating and 1,224,000 Total Viewers

Episode 8 - 0.31 A18-49 Rating and 1,125,000 Total Viewers

Episode 9 - 0.27 A18-49 Rating and 988,000 Total Viewers

 

 

Those are some ugly, ugly numbers (although at least they're not quite as ugly as they were a few weeks ago).  I would have been uneasy about numbers twice as high.  Can Landgraf make good on his pledge at this rate?

 

The person posting these speculated that it is the Paige and Kimmy storylines driving people away.  I wonder if that's true.  I wouldn't however want the showrunners to compromise their craft to appease a fickle public.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

On the SDMB, someone posted the following, which if accurate is far worse than I had realized:

Those are some ugly, ugly numbers (although at least they're not quite as ugly as they were a few weeks ago). I would have been uneasy about numbers twice as high. Can Landgraf make good on his pledge at this rate?

The person posting these speculated that it is the Paige and Kimmy storylines driving people away. I wonder if that's true. I wouldn't however want the showrunners to compromise their craft to appease a fickle public.

What's the SDMB? I've never heard of it before, that I know of.

Also, small point: what you're--or possibly the poster you're quoting the figures from is--calling the "18-49 Rating" is actually the "18-49 *Demographic*". I studied Radio-TV-Film in college & got my degree in it (though I don't work in the field) & as I remember "demographic" & "rating" aren't the same thing.

TV ratings, as a whole, are broken down into multiple figures: how many millions of viewers are watching/estimated to be watching the show; the demographics measurement in *at least* the 18-49 age group of viewers (that most coveted by advertisers) & the 25-54 age group of viewers (I think the next most coveted by advertisers); & the Share (which is supposed to indicate how big/small a part of the total audience available each show got & is usually a figure like "5" or something). This figure wasn't, for some reason, included in your information for any of the weeks you quoted.

Another thing: Cable TV Network ratings (like FX), in comparison to Commercial Network Ratings (i.e. CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox) *can* look like the figures you cited for the show & still have a show *not* be considered a failure/headed for cancellation, unlike with the Commercial networks where consistent figures like those cited are very likely to get a show quickly cancelled--possibly unless it's on Friday night, when the Commercial networks traditionally get much lower ratings for their shows & know to expect that, at this point.

Cable, generally & traditionally, gets a smaller "piece of the pie" than the "traditional" Commercial networks. My point is, even with the ratings slide, perceived to be because of this season's storylines, the show may not be as close to cancellation as is believed (at least by some).

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Emme

Emme

Interesting to note... I was just over on iTunes downloading some stuff for a trip. All three seasons of The Americans made the current Top 25 of TV season downloads.

So, I guess that means people are catching on - and catching up? How much stock do the networks place in download numbers when making programming/renewal decisions?

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SlackerInc

SlackerInc

What's the SDMB? I've never heard of it before, that I know of.

 

The Straight Dope Message Board.  It's a good time--lots of very smart people there.

 

Emme, I could be wrong but I thought the money paid for downloads like those went to the production company.  Sometimes that's owned by the network that airs it, but other times not.  Looking on Wikipedia, they list Amblin Entertainment first, but then also FX Studios, so maybe it's shared.

 

Alan Sepinwall and Dan Fienberg (in their Firewall and Iceberg podcast) talked recently about how sometimes, if a low-rated show is nearing the magical number (around 100 episodes) that will allow it to be sold into syndication, the production company will offer to sell a final season to the network for extremely cheap.  The Americans is nowhere near that number, but it illustrates how the production company and the network can have different incentives.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-realistic-is-the-americans-2013-4

However, there's one factor that most spies appear to agree on — most of the time, spying is really, really boring.

"[being a spy is] ultimately very dull work," Former CIA officer and author Robert Baer said in an interview last year. "You’re lucky if it is interspersed with serious accomplishment or danger. It is generally waiting for things to happen. And you run into the same kind of mediocrity that you encounter anywhere else in life."

 

However, Earnest believes that shows like "The Americans" — even if they are exaggerated or over the top — have a positive effect for the espionage community by showing the human side of the industry.

"I had dinner with someone the other night — with a couple — and I asked the woman if she'd seen 'The Americans.' She said yes, and I asked her, 'What's your impression?,'" he explained. "And she said, 'I never thought about people living like that, living normal lives, in our country.'"

 

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/interrogation/2013/01/the_americans_fx_spy_series_creators_joe_weisberg_and_joel_fields.html

 

(an old one, but still kind of interesting.)

 

Podcast:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/04/02/the_americans_season_3_episode_10_stingers_the_fx_series_creators_on_how.html

\

Complete with Holly's valley-girl accent.

Edited by Umbelina
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